Steve Diggle

He's closer to 5' 1" than 6' 1" - that's a certainty.

I disagree entirely, but acknowledge that the support are still split on him (which puzzles me). Guys behind me watched / ignored hammell having a bombsacre on sat - yet gave JOB pelters for everything and anything. Just the way it is.

That's a fair point mate. For various reasons over many years I just couldn't commit the cash at the time required to get an ST. There's got to be something fundamentally wrong if the reason someone is not inside Fir Park on a Saturday for the sake of a tenner or whatever. I'm not saying we should open the gates and let everybody in for nowt, but as a club (or clubs if we broaden it to the SPL) why would you live with empty seats on a Saturday without getting collective heads together and coming up with something innovative to fill them. If someone 'genuinely wants' to come along on a Saturday and is prevented from doing so because of financial constraints then to me thats a crying shame - and I've actually been in that boat over a number of seasons and know folk right now who stay away purely on cost grounds - great 'well folk at that. It's all to cock!

Stretching the young guy bit a shade as he's hitting the heady heights of 22. I hope we're remembering that Jim O'Brien can start talking to clubs in the next transfer window 4 months from now.

I think they're disliked rather than become shite. Disliked more if they move to one of the old firm. i don't think Walker, O'Donnell, McDonald, Pearson, Lambert, Boyd, McCulloch were shite - they just got pelters for ending up at the OF. I'll back johnstone up here - to be fair he never really liked Klimpl - I saw something in him and it was horses for courses for where we were last season and I wanted him to sign on permanently even though he faded in the last few games. Looking back I think we're now in a better place as a club and don't need him. I'd have Mark Reynolds over Klimpl any day of the week now. if Reynolds is given an extended run ther I think he might develop into a great player.

I was just pointing out that jo.mcr hadn't said it was Slane's doing. All cleared up now anyway. lets hope the club sort hime out - as I'd like him to hang around for a couple of years. beggars belief that one close season Mcghee calls him the new Robbie kean then tries to offload him a season later.

So possibly NOT false then. tbf it has been posted several times previously and always along the lines of McGhee / the club having done the deal against the boys wishes. I have no clue whether it's true or false.

That scary post administration year got me back into the well after years of apathy. Give me that anyday of the week.

Ruddy Hateley, Craigan, Hutch, Reynolds Forbes, Coke, O'Brien Murphy, Sutton (or McHugh), Slane

each to their own I suppose.

Jim, we pay it week in week out mate and sometimes we don't give it much though (well not as much as we should). When you see prices for a game of football in black and white like that it's breathtaking - is it not? Only qualifying / defensive statement is that these prices are across the board in the SPL. I actually looked at those this morning and thought about making your post almost word for word. Completely agree.

Aye but he shouts "Oot the way I'm a doctor" - which is obviously unfair. I think we'll cope OK with big Kylie! Although - you might be right

Sounds like your looking for 118 118 and not Steelmenonline. I don't like writing anything that's too negative about players as I think I might be happy clappy (not entirely sure). But I wouldn't lose any sleep about losing Hammell or Lasley. i'm sorry if I'm a bad person. I think Fitzy's the only one Gannon's been hasty on and I'd have him before Lasley.

Can I be the first to say Kyle's a big diddy. if 'that's' what we're shittin wur pants aboot then we're in big trouble. Maybe we could focus on cutting off his supply?

Aye?

Things the SPL (who produced £3M from the hat on the non payment of the Setanta dosh) could do to help and improve the state of play. remember the SPL are the 12 clubs. Funds could be made available to phase these in. I still think there should be an optional / reciprocal 'season ticket plus' (even if these were roughly £30-50 extra) that could allow all teams clubs STplus holders to get in to away games FOC - all they need to pay is their travel. In the case of the OF and on occasion the edinburgh two - their would need to be a ballot. Non ST holders would pay as normal with a max price set for away fans. (I'd much rather - if we were having them at all - primarily OF season ticket holders from the filth coming rather than the dregs we get at the moment and at least there would then be a possibility of some of them behaving) Start now by allocating a percentage of the TV money to 'admission price reduction' this percentage should increase year on year. At least then the clubs know what's happening anc could plan for it. Just a couple of random thoughts. I just can't get my head round the idea that the SPL hasn't tried 'something' to fill the empty seats we see week in week out in stadiums. Our game 'looks' like the Blue Square Premier when covered on Setanta (or Sky or ESPN) due to the lack of crowd even for those OF away games. Try something different FFS! Although as we seen with our disastrous attempts last season - it needs to be every club and accross the board. if one club tries it in isolation they end up a laughing stock

If I was Sutton I'd be givin Craigan a boot up the hole as well as Gannon as I think Craigan was as much to blame for Sutton getting hooked as he was for getting himself subbied - due to his hopeless punts. Sutton has played some decent Europa games where we've played the ball more on the deck to him than we did on sat. I agree with another poster elsewhere that Sutton could maybe have contributed in the 2nd half, if left on, when there were a few more low crosses and more of our approach play was on the floor. In saying that i'm always glad to see McHugh getting a chance as in the very brief glimpses of him so far he looks exciting. Minds me loads of Dougie in terms of his physique, his ability to turn defenders from close quarters and most importantly that absolute determination to get the ball towards the net wherever he picks it up.

I think money will be there within the current wage structure to sign them all given the headroom created by losing Hughes, Malcolm, Porter, Quinn, Clarky. Muttley, Muttley's Bitch etc. I also think further room will be created by the moving on of Lasley (perhaps) and (definitely) Darren Smith, Hammell and Fitzy I'm not advocating any of that - just a hunch.

was speaking to the good lady's old man over the holidays who's involved in the junior game. we were talking about the standard of journalism in the game - he was telling me about a guy who used to cover junior matches - who needed to get the team sheets and ensure with club officials that he had spellings of first and second names correct before he filed his report (even though first names weren't on the team sheet). Terry Willoughby (brilliant guy) used to send match reports from the 50's and 60's up for us for the first few issues of the GLF fanzine - those reports were amazing - generally written in a positive light and from start to finish described the events of the match. these days 75% plus is about the politics surrounding players & clubs - 25% is about the events of the match and there's usually an error or two thrown in for good measure. To be fair it's usually a picture of a player with the wrong name underneath it. The disrespect shown to all the clubs outwith the old firm in the scottish media is diplorable. if it were shown to any of the top 10 / 12 teams in England there would be an uproar. FFS how hard is it to be up to speed with 12 football teams???

That's not lazy - that's shite and should result in his jotters.

Most of the points here are spot on - all views are right. it's a complete Catch 22 situation. It's way too expensive. All the initiatives by the clubs and the SPL and the SFA etc etc are about clubs breaking even / providing revenue (TV, sponsorship, prize money etc). Supporters have for some time (I think 1990 marked the slow onset of the prawn sandwich brigade) been given little or no consideration. There needs to be a serious initiative to reduce the cost of watching football by any authority serious about the future of the game. The more time goes on the more I'm coming round to fatcalfs way of thinking. We need a major collapse of a league or a governing body before we can emerge from the rubble and re-find our level (as a country)

This threads been more 'on track' than most

I disagree that Slane's a luxury player. Hovever, regardless of whether he is or whether he isn't, it's a must to get tied up on a contract because we need to get money when he goes. The last 'luxury' player we had went to Cardiff for next to nowt. We need to make sure we get dough when all of these young guys eventually move on and that means coming up with a strategy that prevents their agents from running their contracts down after we've given them a shop window. It would also be good to hold on to some of them long enough to appreciate them. We got a couple of seasons fro O'Donnell, faddy and pearson. These days we're happy to pack their suitcases for them after 10 appearances.

Highlight of the ALBA coverage for me - outwith the goals obviously was Gannon's reaction to the ref after McHugh was ploughed by their centre half and the the tit only dished a yellow. i bet the ALBA boys were breathing a sigh of relief that he was walking away from the mic (or their control room guy) had lightening quick reaction to turn the level down) "A f****g yellow?"

I don't think it's the end for Craggs at all - but like the rest of the squad I think he (quickly) needs to adapt to the new style of play. I've watched the ALBA game back and flicked through the goals / incidents a few times and you can see during the match that we lost possesion loads through Craigan's punted balls out of defence and after one in particular whan the ball went out on the right wing you can just tell by Gannon's face that he's scunnered. To be fair although he wasn't brilliant - he was by no means as bad in possession as Hammell was - I thought he had an unbelievably bad game. As a previous poster said - Reynolds plays the ball out of defence more in the way that Gannon wants it done and is more comfortable pushing forward through the centre with the ball when the opportunity arises. Craigan is a fine player and well capable of doing what Gannon appears to be after.